Full-Body Thoracic Extension

Hi. I'm so happy to be here with you today for this mat work class. We are gonna, of course, do a full body workout, but we'll do a lot of focusing on the back body and thoracic extension, which is my obsession. So I hope you like it. Here we go.

So I want us just to find an upright position. Taking the hands just to the fronts of the knees. So in my imagination, back body doesn't just mean extension. It means all sorts of back body, movements, and challenges, and stretches. So feel here that you're pulling up on your knees, almost like you're trying to lift your feet off the floor, and use that sensation to really feel into your entire back body. Right away, we're gonna let the chest come up and back.

So a small focusing on the mid back and then back to straight. Keeping the hands where they are around the spine. So now we stretch the spine and I'm taking my spine back and allowing my arms to straighten and then pulling against the hold of my arms. Maximum stretch. Come back to upright, rocking the pelvis back up, pull up bend back on the knees as you lift your chest, working through the middle of the back, and then center, and then rock the pelvis back, allowing the arms to straighten in when they do dig a little deeper, pull against those arms.

And then rock the pelvis up. We'll do that twice more. Lift up and back with the spine, and center and round the body. Pulling away from the arm hold. It sounded funny and sit up. Oh, well.

And pull up. Taking the eyes up, the chest up. And center and go back and center. And take the arms forwards. Reach out down over your legs, out and down over your legs and begin rolling back. So take the pelvis back, Find the low back.

Come back up. Bring the body in close. Bring the body up and open the knees. Open the arms out to the sides and around and then around forward again, closing the legs again and rock back. Feeling the low spine connect to the floor.

You can hold your legs if that's a difficult movement for you to find. And then roll up, bringing the body forwards. Open the knees as the body sits up. Open the chest as the arms circle around. Round the spine, bring the knees in, and go back again.

We'll do five. So three more. And up. Feel a lot of energy in your body, opening the knees, allowing the hips to open, circle, close the knees, push the air, meaning create resistance, two more? Mobilizing the spine and up, and lift and open. Around. And push forward, bring the knees in, and go back last time, and go up and reach up and open and press forwards.

And go all the way down. Adjusting yourself on your mat for some pelvic curls. Head down. Settling the arms in place. We inhale.

Press into your feet and begin to roll up through the pelvis. So we lift up nice and high. Take the arms overhead. As you roll down through your spine, create a circular action with your arms, feeling the shoulders rotate on the mat underneath your shoulder blades, rather. Come all the way down as the pelvis touches down, the arms press, and roll. So the backs of the arms.

Keep them pressing as the hips lift up. Then let them go, float. Let them open out wide. Explore the range there as you come all the way down. Arms press down as the pelvis lands.

They keep pushing down as we roll up, feeling the backs of the legs working, the backs of the arms working, the abdominals working to support at the top arms overhead. And circle. Around, and down. Pressing down. Two more of the same lifting up, mobilizing the body. Enter thighs are active, just the checklist, arms reach up, feet are equally pressing as we roll down, pulling the heels may be back a little bit towards the pelvis as it arrives down onto the mat to feel a little bit more attention to the backs of the legs.

I forgot how many more we have to do. Maybe one, two, two. I don't know. We'll do two. Arms overhead.

Big wide open the whole body. So the back of the body stretches. The shoulders stretch. We'll stay up at the top on this next one. And lift up.

Keep the arms down this time. Lift the left hip, drop the right hip low. Roll down the right side of the body. Both arms are active. Keep them pressing the same.

Come through center, and come up in the center, feet, arms, abdominals, find your shape, lift the right hip. We're rolling now down the left side of this binds that we're mobilizing one side of the body at a time, come through center, and come up in the center. Arms pressing. Heavy head. Go the other direction.

Left tip, high, right, hip, low. Go down. Through center. Up in the center focusing on the backs of those legs, back of the body, other way, go down. Really stretching. It's good to move the spine side to side. And down. One more lift up.

Stay at the top. Bring the arms back. Take the arms around, but pause when they arrive in a t. We're rolling the spine down, reaching out through the arms. Pelvis comes down, arms comes down, step the feet together. Take the knees and feet to the right side of the body.

And from the center of the body, pull back. Take the knees and feet to the left side of the body and pull back. I like to think about on the way to the side, letting the top leg get heavy on the bottom leg, taking it a little further into that stretch. And then I like to think of lifting the bottom leg into the top leg to come back to center. It was just what my imagination does, you can decide what you like, but that works for me. Heavy top leg, press with the bottom leg, feel the abdominals one more time to either direction over.

And center. And in here. And Exhale. Keeping the feet and the knees together, reach back to bring your hands behind your head. Taking an inhale. Stick the feet to the ground.

Lift the head and chest, pulling back with the feet towards the pelvis. Stay lifted in your body and float the knees into the chest, pressing the chest a little higher. Take the feet back down to the ground, push down in that ground, and take the body down. And lift the head and chest. Imprinting the low spine into the ground.

Keep that low spine actively pressing down as the knees pull into the chest. Go back to the ground, wide elbows, heavy head. And go down. And lift up. Really getting into that highest position. And pull in.

Nice and simple. Simple doesn't mean easy. If you've ever taken class with me before you, know that is a firm belief that I hold. Last two. Lifting up imprint.

Wide elbows, press the head into the hands or just let it get heavy. Lifting in reaching down. Oof, and lowering down, and up, and float. And anchor and all the way down. One more. List up making a change.

Float the legs, crisscross, ten, and ten. Nice and smooth nine, and nine, and eight. Staying lifted. And seven, and seven. Keep lifting through the center.

Five. Five. Lift. Squeeze the legs past one another. Twice more.

One more. Come back into the center. Hold the center do a little pelvic curl. And, a little pelvic curl. And, a little pelvic curl is your chest dropping.

Mine is trying to I'm fighting it. Last two. And down one more. Go down with the hips. Go down with the head.

Take the arms down to the mat. Stretch the legs out. Lift them up. That same idea, the reverse curl happening from the abdominals as we bend over, we're keeping the legs together. Let the knees bend.

The back will stretch. Stretch the legs long and roll down. Active through the backs of the arms, stretching the whole backside of the body, As the pelvis lands, the legs can go down, and then back up, and then we take them over. And as the pelvis is over the shoulders, we can let the knees soften and stretch out and go down. Find control. Take your time.

Lakes go down and up. And we go over. And bend and take the legs out and go down. Check with the shoulders. Are they starting to lift?

Backs of the arms will help with that. Last time. Lift up. Go over. Stay over and bend and reach and go down.

Bend the knees, hands to the knees, head to the chest, roll up, tuck in, rolling like a ball, go back. And up straighten the legs. Oh, that was harder than I thought it was gonna be today. And bend. And back. And up.

And stretch the legs better every time. That's my goal. Better every time. And back and up and stretch the legs. And bend, and back, and up, and stretch the spine, and bend One more.

Back up. Stretch the legs. Let them go. Bring them down. I'm gonna move on to my mat, but if you're happy where you are, just stay.

Arms out to the side. Feed and knees together. Twist and center. And lift as you twist and center. And lift as you twist.

And lift as you twist. I have the hiccups one more time. Rotate, center, rotate, center making a change. Take your rotation. Put the back hand on the ground.

Take the front arm up, bend the back arm, reach up and over. And then press with the arm to float back up and center. I think about it like a rebound. Go over. Back arm goes down.

Top arm comes up and over as we lean in stretching that side of the body. Push to float and center and go inhale. And exhale, and inhale, and exhale, as a suggestion, go around, breathe, arm, and reach, and float. And center last time over, and reach, and float, and center last one to this sign. Arm and lean and reach up and center. Take the arms forward and roll down through the spine.

Let your hands come to your legs. Use your arms to pull your back flat. So using the arms not to make it easy, but to really, really get into that nice, strong, spinal, extended shape, take the arms overhead. Stay with the arms overhead, and bend the elbows, and reach up leaning forward, and bend the arms pulling the chest through the arms. And reach up one more.

Pull in down. And reach up and dive forward. And sit back up. We're gonna repeat that twice more if I can remember. Go down.

I think I can remember too. Pull the body out, flatten the spine. Maybe even soften the knees a little. If they're not already bent, trying to get a little bit more, and then maybe they'll straighten again. And then we reach out.

And we bend the arms, pulling the chest through the arms and reach up. And bend the arms, pull back through the abdominals and float them up. One more the same bend, and float them up and round. And stack back up. I remembered just one more. Go down. Hold on.

Pull out. Go up. Pull down. Reach up. And two.

Reach up. And one, hold there straighten your arms. Take a rotation, keeping that long forward line and center. And take a rotation kinda feels like an airplane in my arms and center. Just kidding. I'm trying to make a joke and rotate and lean in and rotate.

And center. Last time. Rotate and center and rotate. Center, I don't know about you, but I feel my upper back a lot. Raise your arms back over your head.

Dive back down. Just pause there for a stretch. And then allow the spine, just roll back up all the way. Take the arms down. We're gonna come onto our knees and forearms.

So turning around. Taking the elbows down onto the mat. Positioning the knees so that they're under the pelvis using the abdominals to support the spine. We're gonna take the left leg out to the side and in. So lots of challenges here, and, primary is trying not to lean the body to the right.

Another one is see if you can keep weight on both arms, which is tricky because it you'll wanna weight the arm where the knee is going two more times. Body stays center. And in. Body stays center. So back body supporting.

Come back in. And now take that bent knee and reach up. And down. Little easier here to keep weight equal, but still challenging. And lift. And down.

And lift, and down. Lot of upper back work here. Lift and hold straighten the knee, and take the straight leg down, and up. And down. And up and down and up, pulling the arms towards the knees.

One more. Up, bring the knee in. We'll take a small stretch through the arms. Small break, rather. A little bit of relief for the arms coming back.

The other leg goes out and in maintaining as best as you can that 90 degree angle with the hip, and maintaining as best as you can, the two sides of the body equally long. Two more out and in. And out. And, and the knee stays bent and goes straight up trying to stay centered in the body and, and up, and and up and down and up and down and up and straighten and down. And up. Keep thinking about that upper back support, down, and up. And down, and up. Last two.

One more. Bring that knee in. Reach back towards your feet allowing the elbows to leave the ground, allowing that mid back shoulders to get a stretch. Come back through. Take the arms to the outside of the mat.

Come over the hands, take the right leg behind. We're gonna bend the arms and raise that leg right up into the air. Push up and round the spine and pull the knee through. And reach out. The back of the leg is lifting up.

So full back body there. And up. And pull through pushing the ground away, and back, and then lift, and up, and round. And back, and two, and up, and round, and back, and last one. And up, and round, and put the knee down.

Heather side. The back of the leg. Lifts up. Just reaches down. I'm trying to tip my nose on the ground and bring it through so we get a stretch.

And then we feel the work bend. And bring it through and reach and bend the arms, not the knee. And fully extend and go and push and pull and reach and bend. And up and pull in and place the knee down and reach back over your feet. From there, we'll bring the arms back to the center, back to shouldered width apart, roll the spine, bring the hips through.

Press down with the pelvis and up and back with the chest. Press down with the knees and the arms and round. To sit back towards the heels, pulling the arms oppositionally, and go round. Fully articulating the spine, and then arching up, and then oppositional pressure with the arms and the legs as we reach back over the feet. And again, round.

Drop through combination of strength and stretch, and go back one more time, and around come through. Go back while you're there. Cross your legs. Roll over your feet. And come to sitting. Bring your arms out to your sides.

Fill the body floating in space. Take the left arm up in the right arm down and bend the right arm and lean over to that side. And once again, use the arm. Let the body float. Take the left arm down.

We stretch that side. And then press up one more time through. Go over to the one side, keeping that opposite hip heavy. Just in a long open diamond. I didn't mention that, but you could sit however you're comfortable really, reaching over. And up.

And once again, over this time, take the body forward towards the leg, the closest leg. Pull with the arm on the ground to help maximize that stretch. Come back to the side stretch and float and go over. So what I mean is as I take that top arm around, I'm the arm that's on the ground, I'm almost pushing towards the other arm. That for me gives a big stretch.

Hope it works for you too. If not, I'm sure you'll find a strategy that does one more time to each side over, and interrotation stretching the body. Coming back around and up and over and into rotation. And back and float. Take the arms forwards.

Feel the spine lifting. Bring the the arms up. Open to the sides. Feel that mid back, finding some energy, and then reach forward, letting the knees get heavy. Revisiting this shape, lift up.

Allow the arms to just float up towards the ears. Feel the body reaching with them. Create work, but also ease softness, and reach forwards, and two more articulate. Let the arms reach in opposition. That'll give you more of a stretch up and around, and forwards.

And up, and arms, and around. And this time, just all the way down. Pausing just feeling the energy moving through your body or pausing and allow me to feel the energy moving in my body. And with that, thank you so much.